Happy New Year, The Big Island and Maui.

Happy New Year! 

J and I spent the first days of 2013 working and working for a little bit of time off in the middle of the month to travel to the Big Island and Maui. Since we've been back we have been at work again with a super fun training that I will have to write more about later.

Until then, I just wanted to share a few pictures from our time on Hawaii. J has the awesome pictures of whales breaching and the group on the beach, but these do capture our time there...

First, some images from the Big Island. Highlights included meeting Maria, a friend of J's. We also did some standup paddleboarding for the first time, sampled tasty malasadas, and lived like locals.

J partaking of malasadas.

Hiking down to a black sand beach on the Big Island.

J and I on the black sand beach.

Amazing trees and J scouting out the rest of our hike on the black sand beach.

The lovely Maria tying the stand up paddleboards to the car for a day at the beach.

J and Maria paddleboarding out to watch the sunset.

J and I on our first time out, paddleboarding.

 Next up, Maui! Whale watching at sunrise, hiking in the valleys, dinner at a wonderfully fancy farm to table restaurant, and beaches - lots of beaches!

My beach shot. This was a rocky one!

Our friend James Cook kept showing up everywhere. J and I had a big kick out of local history write ups in shops not mentioning that he was killed on Hawaii.

Sunrise at the harbor.

Humpback whale at dawn. We had a great whale watch...a mom and her calf, a competition pod, a whale that came up super close to our boat, and several breaching whales as well. We were even able to hear them underwater!

We always get this shot: Hawaiian ice!

J and I before dinner at Pacific'o.

Iao Valley (and its "needle").

Petroglyph on the hike.

Lilikoi (passionfruit), a personal favorite of ours, grew naturally all over the valley.

Loving the lushness.

On each island we still have more we'd love to do and discover. We will be back!